Easton moves to sweep up housing code violations

Standing between Sixth and Northampton streets and Walnut Avenue in Easton,… (ED KOSKEY JR., SPECIAL TO…)

June 07, 2012|Christina Gallagher, Of the Morning Call

Seventeen-year-old Aliyah Johnson sat on the top of her fire escape, watching as two code inspectors equipped with clipboards and escorted by a police officer paraded through her home's back alley.

Before rain forced her to find cover, Johnson saw code compliance officer Sharbel Koorie note on his clipboard that untamed weeds growing in the backyard and the building's peeling paint are code violations of the property she rents on S. Sixth Street.

Koorie was among a small army of code compliance officers who inspected the exteriors of 200 properties around the 600 block of Northampton Street Thursday afternoon — as part of the city's plan to clean up its streets. Officers documented dozens of violations, from overflowing trash cans to sidewalk cracks.

Johnson said she didn't think the trash-ridden alley behind her home could ever be cleaned up until she saw the inspectors in their green golf shirts.

"I never thought about it until now," Johnson said.

Thursday's block sweep was the first of several planned to urge residents to take better care of their properties in a city that Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said is "tough on blight." Other inspections will occur throughout the summer.

"Our neighborhoods are the lifeblood of our city, but no one wants to come in if they're not clean," Panto said before the group of inspectors descended upon the neighborhood.

Rhodes Yepsen of Ferry Street walked alongside the mayor to learn how to help clean up his neighborhood. Yepsen said his back alley isn't just home to litter, it's home to crime.

Drug deals and prostitution often occur in the ally behind his house, he said. But rather than making calls to police, Yepsen wants to be involved in cleaning up his neighborhood.

"I'm more focused on the change we can do," Yepsen said. "I don't think there's a point to call the cops on one prostitute or drug dealer."

Yepsen's dream to live in a clean, safe neighborhood may be on the horizon. Well-kept, sturdy and redeveloped homes are scattered throughout those in disrepair. The Easton Redevelopment Authority revamped some, and young owners have improved others, Panto said.

Panto said the city hopes that mailing violation notices to homeowners and landlords will spur a neighborhood cleanup.

Chief codes and zoning administrator Cindy Cawley said she expects violations will be logged for more than half of the properties inspected Thursday.

Cawley said property owners will first receive a warning, giving them a chance to correct them.

In that way, she said, the letters are meant to tell residents "we're willing to work with you."

But if property owners refuse to work with the Code Enforcement Department, they could face fines and eventually criminal charges, something the department doesn't want to see.

"Our objective isn't to wind people up," code enforcement officer Neil Bennett said. "It is more there are these things we would like you to do. Could you put things right, please."